On Wed, Mar 24, 2004 at 11:35:38AM -0800, Alan Kay wrote:
> Ross --
> 
> The problem is that all of this is essentially ridiculous, because 
> there is no way to prevent anyone from suing anyone, regardless of 
> the disclaimers. So coming up with doomsday scenarios is not at all 
> helpful, and simply puts more of a scare into people who are easily 
> scared.
> 
This is true, but incomplete.  It is true that anyone can sue anyone
for any reason, and that no license can protect you completely from
that.

Your statement is incomplete because it avoids the fact that under the
squeak license, if someone sues Apple for whatever reason related to
squeak, you explicitly give Apple the right to drag you into it.
This puts anyone who accepts the license at a particular risk they
would not otherwise have.

> None of the licenses that are accepted by the OSI give anyone 
> protection from any suit.

I suspect none of them explicitly open the licensees up to liability
either.

> 
> In any case, it would be nicer if the BS was BS that scared people 
> less regardless of the actual facts and actual legalities.

I meant my examples more as jokes, but clearly the lawyers who drafted
the clause put it there for a reason, and anyone who takes it
seriously has some basis for being concerned.

Free + a potential time bomb <> free
> 
> I hereby (legally) resign from this thread.
> 
OK, taking you off the distribution list, though I'm kind of hoping
you'll see this. :)

> Alan

Some of the problem is a general cultural issue of law vs business or
most other activities.  Lawyers are paid to worry about the outside
chance, even if most of us think that's silly.  While most of us
consider the probabilities, lawyers tend to think more in terms of the
possibilities: anything that might conceivably happen should be dealt
with.  Perhaps because my father was a lawyer, I tend to take
contracts pretty seriously.  And, though I personally am pretty
comfortable using squeak because I recognize the chance I would get in
trouble is tiny, I really don't think organizations can be so casual.